In the Blue Light
by star.everlasting
Summary: They were all trapped- Killer Frost in a prison, Caitlin in her mind and her fear, Barry in his helplessness, Cisco in his grief- and Joe just wanted his son(s) back safe and sound. [Snowbarry Week 2019 Day 5 - Prison/Prisoners/Captivity/Kidnapped]


We're on Day 5!

Flash fam, we made it to day 5 of Snowbarry Week! Today's prompt is prison/prisoners/captivity/kidnapped; I wanted to do a more introspective piece on a scene we're all very familiar with- the moment Caitlin is overwhelmed by Killer Frost, but taking a closer look at each of the characters in this scene and how each of them were prisoners of something (except, you know, HR). Caitlin, Barry, Cisco, and Joe are all struggling with very evident things right in front of their faces, literally or figuratively, and Iris has her fate of being killed by Savitar hanging over her head.

It's a very loaded scene, full of the trials each person is facing.

I also combined the writing/art prompts together today to create a prison/prisoners/captivity/UNDERRATED MOMENT piece (the underrated moment being Iris freaking out and Cisco going, "NO NO NO it's gonna be okay" because...because it is, he has full confidence in Barry and Caitlin's bond and Barry's ability to bring her back, even though he's dealing with all the baggage of losing Dante and Barry not going back in the timeline to save him.

I hope everyone enjoys! :)

**Disclaimer**: I don't own the Flash/DCTV

* * *

She didn't know where she was.

But, it felt…familiar. Like she was trapped in a dream, except the dream was dark and cold and she knew she was sleeping; when she struggled to open her eyes, it was as if she was looking through a murky haze, the things she saw blurring together and making her head hurt.

She could hear things too, but they echoed and sounded so far off, almost like she was underwater, like she was drowning, drowning like she had been before in desperation and despair and ice, there was ice _everywhere_. Her own voice sounded hollow to her ringing ears. And then, out of nowhere, she heard his voice- Barry's voice, the one that had so often anchored her when she needed it most, the one that comforted her in her darkest times- and Caitlin saw blue lightning flash in front of her eyes before she took the plunge.

* * *

Well, this was no fun. Three walls of absolutely _nothing_, and an impenetrable glass door in front of her. So, what, after you wake up from a _long _nap you scare a few people, come close to killing a few, and all of a sudden, they lock you away?

Sharp blue eyes analyzed each square foot of her prison, narrowing at each possibility of escape before realizing it was futile. She knew what this was, knew the exact reason, reasons she couldn't leave. Ignoring the slight pounding of her head, she sat up on the floor of her cell, putting a smirk on her lips.

In front of her, "Team Flash" looked at her through the glass wall of her prison door, varying emotions on each of their faces.

"Whew," she said, mirth in her eyes as she stood up to face them and straightened out her clothes. "Guess I just needed a little sleep. Thanks, guys. I'm feeling much better now. It's okay." She put on her most convincing, sarcastic smile. "You can let me out, I promise I'm not going to hurt anybody."

When no one moved and Barry started lightly drumming his fingers on the pipe next to him, the one he was leaning on, her eyes flicked from one person to the next, smile dropped. "Hmm. Guess you're all smarter than I thought." She focused her eyes on Cisco, who stood behind Barry. "You know, that was some blast there, Vibe-boy. Kinda hurt." Not to mention he ruined a _great_ kiss. A little cold, but hey, she had her way of doing things, they had theirs. Granted, she was also trying to incapacitate the Flash, but who's keeping track, really.

His eyes were already shining with tears- it wouldn't take much more to get him to break apart, she knew. "I didn't want to hurt you," Cisco whispered.

It was time to pull her claws out, her red lips curling into a condescending sneer. "You're pathetic."

And there it was, the tears building in his eyes as he saw who he perceived to be Caitlin tearing him down bit by bit. She could see, through Caitlin's memories, her time with each of them, and she knew that out of everyone, Cisco and Barry would be hit the hardest by her actions. It was precisely what she needed, because if she could rip them to pieces, then there would be no one left to stand in her way.

"Alchemy can't help you," Barry finally said, speaking up before she could hurt Cisco any further. "We can, I promise."

Something inside of her snapped, and for the first time, she wondered whether it was just Caitlin's emotions of disappointment, fear, and betrayal, or her own rage fueling her words. "Oh, like you promised Eddie?"

Barry's head dropped, his heart breaking in his eyes. She twisted the knife further. She _wanted _him to hurt. She wanted him to feel the pain she felt, Caitlin felt, when she watched Iris collapse next to a dying Eddie, when Ronnie slipped through her fingers both times, when Barry so callously created Flashpoint without thinking of how anything he did would affect the people around him. "And like you promised Ronnie? You know, for a hero, Flash, you sure let a lot of people around you die."

"This isn't you talking," he replied, shaking his head. "It's the powers; they're messing with your mind. You're sick." He rubbed his hand on the back of his neck, trying to ground himself. Caitlin had always been there to do that- his anchor, his hold on reality and everything that was good he was fighting for, though he had never said it out loud. And now, with the shell of the woman standing before him, it was hurting him more than he could say.

"I'm broken, Barry," she told him. Her gaze instantly sharpened, her expression turning back into a sneer. "But what do you care? 'Cause you got Iris. You got your happy ending. Everyone else be damned."

The woman in question was staring holes into her face. Iris' arms were crossed in front of her chest, and though she knew Iris and Caitlin had never really progressed much further than "work friends", it was easy, so easy to despise her. The ice flowing through her veins grew even colder as she registered Caitlin's confusion and her heartbreak and her annoyance and her anger over the past few years at or related to her, emotions Caitlin worked hard to tamp down on in favor of fostering a friendship between the two women, and that alone was enough to keep her going.

"So," she said, stepping back in her cell. "I'll tell you what. You guys…let me go. And I will leave you to your sad and miserable lives."

For a second, she thought she might actually have a chance. Then, HR looked down at his drumsticks in amusement, Joe and Iris both straightened their shoulders, and Barry looked at her, resigned.

"No," he said quietly. "We're not abandoning you."

Then it happened. For the first time, truly the first time, Killer Frost broke free of Caitlin Snow. "_You did this to me_!" she snarled, her eyes glowing white in her fury.

When the door to the Pipeline came down, the only lights that were shining were the ones in the corner of her prison. Frost sat down, biding her time. And in the cold darkness, Caitlin Snow looked and saw what she had done, unable to speak, unable to stop herself, unable to tear her eyes away as her friends' hearts were shattered right in front of her. She curled up as tightly as she could, and icy crystals slipped from her eyes.

* * *

Just outside her cell doors, Barry Allen turned to his other best friend, seeing his own reflection in Cisco's lost tears. He had never felt so helpless and trapped before in his entire life.

"Do you have any idea how to reverse this?" he asked, desperate. Logically, he knew that Cisco would have tried everything he knew if there was a way, but this…Barry wouldn't have been able to keep going without voicing it. "How I can get her back?"

Cisco's eyes didn't even meet his, never leaving the Pipeline door. His tears were starting to fall. "It's like Caitlin said…sometimes when things get broken…they can't be fixed."

When Cisco finally looked at him, really looked at him for the first time since everything- since the frozen warehouse, since Killer Snow and taking her down, since _Dante_ and facing Barry for all the mistakes Barry has made, the unforgiveable mistakes- he turned and walked away. Even with Iris by his side, Barry had never been more alone.

* * *

Barely an hour later, Team Flash was in the Cortex staring at the remains of Wally's shattered cocoon, and Barry immediately knew what he had to do. He wanted so much to put off the inevitable for as long as he could, but Wally needed them, needed _her_; _Barry_ needed her.

"What we need right now is a biochemist," he murmured.

A second barely passed before Joe registered what he said. "You've gotta talk to her, Barry."

His foster son looked up at him with pleading eyes. The last thing Joe wanted was to cause Barry anymore pain, but something had to be done, and he knew, even with everything that had happened, the only person who would be able to bring Caitlin back was Barry.

He had always known that Barry was in love with Iris, had always been in love with Iris since they were kids. What he didn't see coming was the connection that he had with one Dr. Snow, who came crashing into their lives along with a lightning storm. Joe briefly wondered where the three of them were headed in the years ahead, and at Barry's hesitant, "Yeah, all right," he hoped they would all get out of it unscathed.

Some scars, he knew, weren't just from injuries sustained on the field. They were carved deep into the bones, trapped underneath the ribs and sliced clean through the heart.

* * *

It was with mild trepidation that Barry opened the Pipeline door to Caitlin- Killer Frost's- cell. He had no plan walking down from the Cortex, but he needed to save Wally, and he needed to save Caitlin. Caitlin had saved him every single time, had brought him back to the people he loved, people who loved him, every single time. It was his turn. He thought about her warm smiles, her hugs, her hand in his as she always said exactly what he needed at the time. He thought about the way her cold lips were pressed against his hours earlier, the way she pulled herself up and straddled him in the middle of the street as she froze him with a kiss. No, he didn't have a plan, but as soon as he came face-to-face with her, Barry decided to throw all of his chips into a single gamble.

Killer Frost was leaning against the wall of her prison when the door slid open, but when she saw that he was alone, her interest was piqued. There was no smile on his face in the blue light, and he was as close to her prison door as he could be. Something tugged at her, deep inside herself, and she knew that Caitlin was stirring, had seen his face, heard his voice.

"We need your help…Caitlin," Barry began. "Wally, he's- he's out of the cocoon, but his biochemistry is all out of whack; he went AWOL."

She raised her eyebrows. "So?"

"So when we find him, he's going to need your help. He's going to need your medical expertise, your experience with metas. What he needs is Caitlin Snow, MD."

There it was. Frost smirked, leaning against the wall and putting a hand on her hip. "So you came to try and talk some sense into me."

And this was the moment Barry had been waiting for. He shook his head, surprising her. "No. I came to let you go."

Surprise and suspicion were reflected clearly in her striking blue eyes, so unlike her usual warm brown ones, as he pressed the buttons on the console and her cell slid open. She walked slowly out of her prison to him, right up until there was only about a foot of space between her and the Flash.

"For a smart guy," Frost said, sneering at him. "That was an awfully dumb move."

His tired green eyes gave nothing away when he looked at her- only resignation, a final sort of defeat that she felt stirred Caitlin further awake deep inside the cold recesses of her mind. "Like I said, you're free to go."

She didn't trust him. "What's the catch?"

There was absolutely no hesitation before Barry's next words. "You have to kill me."

* * *

Above, in the Cortex, Cisco, Joe, Iris, and HR watched the security feed with their eyes wide open in shock.

"What is he doing?" Iris' whole being practically screeched to a halt, every part of her ready to leap up and run down to the Pipeline. Flashes of Eddie's sudden suicidal sacrifice that had saved all of them came back to her, and her hands began to shake.

"No, no, no," Cisco replied immediately, catching on to what Barry was doing. He was with Joe, absolutely, on this matter- the only person who could bring Caitlin back now was Barry. He didn't doubt Caitlin's love for himself or for the people around him, no, but she and Barry had a special connection. No matter what happened, who she was or how she had changed, the one thing that remained consistent was that she would never hurt Barry. "It's going to be all right."

* * *

"You want to fight, Flash?" Her eyes were all sorts of cold, her walls of ice towering so far between them that Barry, even with how warm he ran, electricity coursing through his veins, fought back a shiver.

He shook his head. "No. I'm not going to fight you. But if you want to leave this room, you're going to have to kill me."

There was a moment where both of them stood there staring at each other, ice blue to forest green, and Frost dredged up every single piece of hurt he had caused them, every shred of anger they had felt for him. "Don't think I won't."

"Then do it," he said, shrugging almost carelessly. The hollowness in his eyes was what finally woke Caitlin up; Frost could feel her, weakly banging against her mental prison. Before she could think of her next step, she gathered her powers and formed a sharp icicle in her right hand, the ice crackling as it was called into being. She raised it, pointing it right as his heart.

Barry looked down at it almost condescendingly, seeing her hesitate. "What are you waiting for? What's the big deal? Come on, live up to your name, Killer Frost, I want to see some killing. You want to be the villain? This is what they do, they kill their friends, because nothing matters to them anymore, right?"

He suddenly grabbed at her wrist, thrusting the icicle closer to himself until it was pressed right up against his shirt, the razor-sharp tip pricking his skin. "Right?!"

There was something holding her back from just shoving the icicle into him, a force strong enough to stay her hand, even to resist when he grabbed at her.

"Come on," Barry whispered. "Kill me, Caitlin."

Frost felt her hands beginning to tremble under the weight of his stare, unable to fight, unable to flee.

A beat passed before he shook his head, the resolve in his eyes strengthening. "You can't do it. You can't. Because underneath all that cold, you're still you."

She hadn't noticed when her eyes started welling up, or when Caitlin had finally shattered her way through the icy prison she had been trapped in, effectively putting Killer Frost away once more. The icicle slipped from her limp fingers as Caitlin's heart caught up to everything that Frost had done in her absence, and she could only whisper Barry's name before she launched herself into his open, waiting arms.

"It's okay," he said soothingly, rubbing his thumbs comfortingly against her back and shoulder and feeling the way she took gulped in the free air once again. His own unshed tears burned in his eyes. "I've got you."


End file.
